[GUI Plugin] CalibreSpy

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by DaltonST

You had a complex data gap that you fixed. Library Browser issue was a symptom.

No need to ever do a straight 1-22. Just have to avoid creating a gap. If things get totally confused, however, that is a good way to reset to a valid sequence before saving, restarting, then changing to the desired sequence. No need to live with a straight 1-22.

I don't see all 22 columns, only the 12 I want, the irritant is that I have to include the columns I don't even see in the 1-22 sequence numbers, viz:



The columns I've struck out are irrelevant in this library, but I must include them in the contiguous set of sequence numbers

Originally Posted by DaltonST

Path is a required column, since it is used internally in several places (e.g. read a book, save a copy, get the book ID, etc). Cannot be optional.

Understood, happy to hide it in the list.

Originally Posted by DaltonST

Good idea about the specific CC label in the slot.

---

Originally Posted by DaltonST

My current project is a new plugin, Entities Manager. An entity may have many links and many notes. Associated entities point to their unifying entity that has their links and notes to avoid duplication. Example: Pseudonyms point to the real author that has the links and notes. Or not. Flexible. Associations are optional.

Entity = (type + value) where type is the metadata column name (standard or custom) and value is a metadata value. Any Entity can be associated with any other Entity with no regard to type.

Numeric and composite custom columns are not valid Entity Types.

Author, Series and Publisher are the standard column valid types.

As many links and notes per entity as desired.

Book ID not involved at all. Library-level.

Looks interesting - why not Tags as a standard column valid type, e.g. I might want to make a note as to what I mean by Medieval, Renaissance, Enlightenment etc.

- nice article about Donald Knuth in today's NYT ==>> The Yoda of Silicon Valley

BR

[BetterRed]

If I start the Library Browser, then close the CalibreSpy window via its Exit button, and then click the Next book button in the Library Browser I get the error below

After copying the error message I clicked OK in its popup, unbeknownst to me the Library Browser window hid itself behind the main calibre window Then to confirm the sequence I repeated the steps - twice.

From there I got into a situation where a modal popup, waiting for input (I think), was hidden behind its parent window - pressing Esc and Enter didn't satisfy it. A taskbar->right click revealed I had three Library Browser windows hanging around, and Close All Windows didn't work! So, I started Task Manager and killed the main calibre window task.

IMO - if the CalibreSpy window is Exited it should take its child windows with it. And/or when the Library Browser gets a 'serious' error it should terminate after the user has 'dealt' with the error popup. Or the Library Browser ought be able withstand the loss of its parent CalibreSpy window - I suspect that's a pretty big ask

BR

calibre, version 3.35.0
ERROR: Unhandled exception: <b>RuntimeError</b>:wrapped C/C++ object of type QTableWidget has been deleted

calibre 3.35 [64bit]  embedded-python: True is64bit: True
Windows-10-10.0.17134-SP0 Windows ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '10', '10.0.17134')
Python 2.7.12+
Windows: ('10', '10.0.17134', 'SP0', u'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: None
Successfully initialized third party plugins: Goodreads (1, 3, 0) && GetFileName (0, 0, 13) && EpubSplit (2, 5, 0) && Resize Cover (1, 0, 3) && Find Duplicates (1, 6, 3) && Quality Check (1, 9, 11) && Generate Cover (1, 5, 21) && Extract ISBN (1, 4, 4) && Drop Search Results (1, 0, 8) && Favourites Menu (1, 0, 4) && Job Spy (1, 0, 137) && Reading List (1, 6, 6) && View Manager (1, 3, 2) && Beam Ebooks (1, 0, 0) && Modify ePub (1, 3, 13) && CalibreSpy (1, 0, 65) && User Category (1, 5, 3) && Barnes & Noble (1, 2, 15) && Count Pages (1, 8, 2)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "calibre_plugins.calibrespy.library_browser_dialog", line 373, in next
RuntimeError: wrapped C/C++ object of type QTableWidget has been deleted

[DaltonST]

Version 1.0.66- 19 Dec 2018 Miscellany.


DaltonST

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by DaltonST

Version 1.0.66- 19 Dec 2018 Miscellany.


DaltonST

BR

[BetterRed]

Windows Pro 64 bit version 1809, Calibre 3.40.1, CS 1.0.66

calibre, version 3.40.1
ERROR: Unhandled exception: <b>TypeError</b>:QPushButton(): arguments did not match any overloaded call:
  overload 1: too many arguments
  overload 2: argument 2 has unexpected type 'unicode'
  overload 3: argument 1 has unexpected type 'NoneType'

calibre 3.40.1 [64bit]  embedded-python: True is64bit: True
Windows-10-10.0.17763-SP0 Windows ('64bit', 'WindowsPE')
('Windows', '10', '10.0.17763')
Python 2.7.15+
Windows: ('10', '10.0.17763', 'SP0', u'Multiprocessor Free')
Interface language: None
Successfully initialized third party plugins: GetFileName (0, 0, 13) && Resize Cover (1, 0, 3) && Favourites Menu (1, 0, 4) && Extract ISBN (1, 4, 4) && Job Spy (1, 0, 143) && Goodreads (1, 4, 0) && Count Pages (1, 8, 2) && User Category (1, 5, 3) && Modify ePub (1, 3, 13) && Reading List (1, 6, 6) && Barnes & Noble (1, 2, 15) && View Manager (1, 3, 2) && Find Duplicates (1, 6, 3) && Generate Cover (1, 5, 21) && CalibreSpy (1, 0, 66) && Drop Search Results (1, 0, 8) && Quality Check (1, 9, 11) && EpubSplit (2, 6, 0)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "calibre_plugins.calibrespy.ui", line 71, in normal_read_only
  File "calibre_plugins.calibrespy.ui", line 100, in run_calibrespy_from_gui
  File "calibre_plugins.calibrespy.calibrespy_dialog", line 309, in __init__
  File "calibre_plugins.calibrespy.calibrespy_dialog", line 4298, in create_bottom_widgets
TypeError: QPushButton(): arguments did not match any overloaded call:
  overload 1: too many arguments
  overload 2: argument 2 has unexpected type 'unicode'
  overload 3: argument 1 has unexpected type 'NoneType'

Haven't use CS for a few weeks, created a new CalibreSpy.json - no luck, would it help if I deleted the _calibrespy tables in the databases.

It crashes if I run it from within calibre.exe or via a start command in a batch file.

BR

[DaltonST]

The CS icon is missing for some reason. Reinstall the plugin.

Apparently the entire directory containing CS's icons was deleted from your system. All CS icons are put into your .../calibre/config/plugins/calibrespy_cli/images directory when the plugin is installed.


DaltonST

[BetterRed]

One thing that I have done since I last used CalibreSpy was to move the calibre configuration folder and change the CALIBRE_CONFIG_DIRECTORY environment variable accordingly. Your response seems to suggest that the plugin is storing the configuration location somewhere - it ought not do that, nothing else does -- he says hopefully

BTW: Calibre Spy has always been in my context menu, along with everything else, I prefer to avoid clicking on buttons.



I think it might have had the label "CS+", now its "CalibreSpy", which I much prefer. There's no case for abbreviating GUI plugin names when they're in a context menu, same goes for JobSpy.

BR

[DaltonST]

CS installs all of its resources (as also do Job Spy and any plugins that extract their documentation files (.pdfs or .html) underneath the calibre/config/plugins directory) in the config directory specified by Calibre at the time of installation of the plugin. That will never change. If you randomly move stuff around later on, then you will have to reinstall the plugins.


DaltonST

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by DaltonST

CS installs all of its resources (as also do Job Spy and any plugins that extract their documentation files (.pdfs or .html) underneath the calibre/config/plugins directory) in the config directory specified by Calibre at the time of installation of the plugin. That will never change. If you randomly move stuff around later on, then you will have to reinstall the plugins.


DaltonST

It was not a "random' decision, it was a "much considered decision" to enable me to have alternative calibre configurations - you should be using the environment variable - they reason they exist is to prevent situations like this.

Irrespective of environment variables, the location of the configuration folder shouldn't be effectively 'hard coded' at a moment in time. If someone moves their calibre installation (with the calibre Export/Import tools) to a different computer (maybe a different OS) under a different user name the location of their configuration folder will change. The raison detre for the Export/Import tools is to facilitate doing that in as frictionless manner as possible - including no plugin reinstalls.

BR

[DaltonST]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

It was not a "random' decision, it was a "much considered decision" to enable me to have alternative calibre configurations - you should be using the environment variable - they reason they exist is to prevent situations like this.

Irrespective of environment variables, the location of the configuration folder shouldn't be effectively 'hard coded' at a moment in time. If someone moves their calibre installation (with the calibre Export/Import tools) to a different computer (maybe a different OS) under a different user name the location of their configuration folder will change. The raison detre for the Export/Import tools is to facilitate doing that in as frictionless manner as possible - including no plugin reinstalls.

BR

The .../calibre/plugins... directory is not "configuration", excluding the .json files that reside there by Calibre design. It has "resources" defined both by a plugin and by the users themselves to be used with the plugin. It also contains the plugin .zip files themselves.

Example: The user-defined and user-created icons to use for the Entities Manager column icon creation rules. EM also places all automatically backed-up column icon rules into a special directory under .../calibre/plugins... so the user can un-do what they just did.

Example: The user-defined and user-created Tag Browser icons specified by the user via the Job Spy "Customize User Category Tag Browser Icons" tool.

Example: The example .csv files, and .xlsx/.ods instructions and example files, that are used with the Job Spy "Scrub Tags" tool.

Example: The Calibre Spy example .bat files and icons for running CS for multiple Calibre Libraries simultaneously when the Calibre GUI is not running at all.

Example: The special backup files for the Job Spy "back up and restore Last Modified Date Metadata" tool.

Example: The many user-created English Noun Frequency word-lists for adding overrides and exceptions to the standard ENF lists.

Example: The documentation for at least four (4) other plugins that is comprised of huge .pdf files with many images that can be opened instantly via simple menu selection only because they have already been extracted from the .zip file into their resources folder.

I you want to change the Calibre environment variable, it is easy to manually copy-and-past the entire .../calibre/plugins/... directory from where it was to where it should be moved to. Given that you would lose all of your .json files, that would be a very good idea in any event. It would also copy all of the plugin .zip files that are located in .../calibre/plugins/... too.

One would think that the Calibre export/import configuration tool would do copy the entire .../calibre/plugins/... directory too. There is no reason not to, and every reason to do so.




DaltonST

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by DaltonST

The .../calibre/plugins... directory is not "configuration", excluding the .json files that reside there by Calibre design. It has "resources" defined both by a plugin and by the users themselves to be used with the plugin. It also contains the plugin .zip files themselves.

When I use the term 'configuration folder/directory' I mean the folder that is opened when you click the button labelled Open calibre configuration directory in the Preferences->Miscellaneous dialogue. The same one that the Environment variables section of the calibre references in:

CALIBRE_CONFIG_DIRECTORY - sets the directory where configuration files are stored/read.

I moved the entire configuration folder, including the ...\plugins\calibrespy.cli, jobspy etc sub-folders, to c:\_AppData\Calibre\Config64 and reset CALIBRE_CONFIG_DIRECTORY to that location.

I'm attaching a listing of the c:\_AppData\Calibre\Config64 tree, where you'll see the jobspy and calibrespy-cli folders and their contents.

BR

[BetterRed]

I uninstalled CalibreSpy and removed everything related thereto from the configuration plugins folder and my library databases - i.e clean slate. After I installed calibrespy and set the global and per library options I did some tests. Everything was fine so...

I closed calibre, copied C:\_AppData\Calibre\Config_64bit to C:\_AppData\Calibre\Config_Test, changed CALIBRE_CONFIG_DIRECTORY accordingly, and started calibre and calibrespy - et voila all was well.

The only thing that was out of kilter was the 'Calibre-SMTP' Command File Path: value in the library settings, since I don't use it I made it blank. Made me wonder why that would be a per library setting, and why the Load Series, Publisher... Modified Date are not per library.

The program paths are unlikely to be affected, can't imagine why anyone would install a program in the calibre config folder :lol:

BR

[DaltonST]

Everything is per Library. No exceptions. Read the tooltips in Calibre Preferences Plugins CalibreSpy Customize. Those tooltips explain everything.

[BetterRed]

I lost sight of the check boxes above the Custom Column selectors, or they hid themselves

I thought one could add filter selectors for custom columns similar to those for Author, Title and Publisher - I know they're available via the context menu, but the filter selectors are more visible.

Could you display custom dates according to the format specified in the custom column. I have columns where I only make use of the time segments, so what ends up in the date segments is arbitrary, and for me the timezone is almost always totally irrelevant.

I doubt you can do anything about this, but might as well ask: if you scroll the library options panel with the mouse, its very easy to inadvertently scroll one or two of the Custom Column dropdown selectors to another value. Don't use the mouse wheel to scroll is the obvious answer, but if Save, Save & Exit and Exit had shortcuts such as Ctrl+S, Enter and Escape there would be less need to scroll. I wouldn't even mind if you ignored the scroll wheel on that dialogue, but I suspect that's not easy and others might not like it.

BR

[DaltonST]

Version 1.0.68- 11 Mar 2019 Datetime Custom Columns: format according to their specific Calibre CC display format rather than a generic display format.



DaltonST